“Get outta my dreams, get into my car.”
— Billy Ocean, 1988
Dan Snaith, the Canadian producer who records and performs under the name Caribou, was 10 when Billy Ocean’s “Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car” was released as a single. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that Snaith heard the single (it topped the Canadian charts) and there isn’t a doubt in my mind that he wasn’t thinking of Ocean during the recording of his latest LP, Our Love.
But I’m sure he didn’t think of it long. Because while “Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car” blatantly fixates on the lovemaking aspect of love, Snaith uses Our Love as a vehicle to encapsulate every single angle of the sentiment. Taking on love seems like a daunting and dangerous task for any musician, but for one who dabbles primarily in club music—where being impassioned in general is a rarity—this feat seems nearly impossible.
Yet Snaith knocks love out of the park every time he comes to bat on a record that is at once his most tame and broad in scope. Much like love itself, Our Love meanders between melancholy and bliss, clarity and confusion, experimentation and mundanity; there’s sourness in “All I Ever Need,” devotion on “Can’t Do Without You,” and understanding on “Second Chance.” And for each of these states he explores, Snaith builds up and tears down similar vaporous synth tones and beats in such a way that each track feels at once familiar and distinct from the nine that surround it.
Our Love climaxes with its title track, a song that runs through the confusions, complexities, and rewards of an entire relationship in a meager five minutes. More impressively, Caribou manages these sentiments by singing nothing more than the words “our” and “love” throughout the track’s duration. Similar to the record as a whole, “Our Love” starts as a simple premise and maneuvers into meaningful, intricate territory. And whether you’re looking for companionate, familial or physical love, you’re sure to find an accommodating match in at least one of these songs.
Our Love